While the story this week has been and likely will be all about Tiger, there will be plenty to enjoy during the Hero World Challenge. This year’s field features the numbers 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 15, 17, 18, 21, 23, 25, 27, 28th ranked players along with the 1199th ranked Tiger Woods. Sure, this isn’t an official PGA Tour event, but the payout is still quite hefty at $1 million dollars for the winner and with no cut everyone will be around on the weekend…looking at you Tiger.

If you haven’t been paying attention to golf this winter, there are a few guys who have been having some early season success. Justin Rose won the WGC-HSBC Champions event as well as the Turkish Airlines Open, Brooks Koepka won the Dunlop Phoenix Tournament in Japan, Dustin Johnson finished second at the WGC-HSBC Champions, Jordan Spieth just finished eighth at the Australian Open, Rickie Fowler finished second at the OHL Classic at Mayakoba, and Justin Thomas won the inaugural CJ Cup.

Having said that, any of these guys could obviously win this week, but those guys have been playing well around the globe leading up to this tournament.

My Pick

And so begins the throwing of darts in hopes of landing on the right winner.

This week I’ll take Justin Rose. As much as I’d like to see Big Cat win this week – I don’t think he finishes in last – I believe that Rose’s game is too dialed in right now. Not to mention, Rose is extremely comfortable playing in Albany.